The First Three
by Can'tHandleIt
Summary: She wasn't the first girl or the last, Louisa cam before her, Teresa after. She will remember more than the rest, but not enough. She will have ties to everyone there, yet, she knows no one. She was barely curious when she came from the box, and didn't ask many questions. She was stung her second day there, but that wouldn't be the last time.
1. Chapter 1: The First Uncurious One

Credit Fo the Idea of this Story goes completely to SoftballQueen12. Look up _Fighting Against You,_ its an awesome story.

Chapter 1

I can never remember my dreams, but I know I had a nightmare before I woke up.I look around and blink, trying to adjust my eyes to the darkness. I was lying on the floor of, well a giant cage, and though the metal beneath me was cold, I was sweating. I ignored the knot in my stomach as I tried to stand up. I put my hands out in front of me and took a few steps forward. Soon enough, my feet hit a wall. I felt around.

I was in some kind of box, kinda like the one from...

The one from what? Why can't I remember anything? Where am I? Who am I? Wait, stop, I know this one. I am Mare. I think, it's the only thing I can remember, so it's my name.

Suddenly, the ground lurched upwards, and I fell back to the floor with a groan. This effectively lurched me out of thoughts of my name, and on to more pressing matters.

With sounds of metal grating against metal, the room, or whatever it was began moving upwards. Was I in some kind of elevator?

I'm hungry, but I have a feeling that I'm always hungry.

I huddled into a corner and hugged my knees to my chest, racking my brains to remember something. Anything. How had I got here? What was my last name?

Nothing. My mind drew a perfect blank. I was so close to having a panic attack. Somehow, I knew I was alone in the lift. I know I hate being alone, that's a start. But I'm not afraid, this 'thing' has got to go somewhere, and at that somewhere there's probably people, and food, emphasis on the food part.

I was confused, but I know one thing, I want food, and when this thing stops the people at the somewhere might not be willing to give me food, so I'd better find a weapon.

I scan the dim box, I see in the corner opposite mine, there rest crates, I scoot over to them, and on the lids I can just make out the words: Medical. Doctors use syringes right? Ooh and glass bottles for medicine. I reach out and open the medical crate, I look into the box and see a few bottles, I reach out and take one, it's full, I dump it out on the floor, hope that wasn't important. I scoot over to the wall and smash the bottle against the wall. I barely hear the break as the cage rattles on.

I go back to my corner and plop down with my bottle sword in tow.

Eventually the cage slows, and finally it creaks to a stop. I peer up at a small sliver of light I didn't notice before. As I watch it gradually widens, until it reaches the full length of the walls. I immediately stand and turn to face the wall and I shove my hands into the gaps that make the wall a thick fence. I climb up and out onto fresh grass. I stand brushing grass and dirt off of me with my unoccupied hand and look up.

Around me stand about thirty teenagers. All, of the male category. Well that's just peachy.

"Well hello there," said a voice with an accent from, who know where. "Hope you enjoyed the one-way ride up. Ain't no ticket back."

"Well that's inviting," I croak, I cough, my throat is dry, "Do you happen to have any food that you'd be more than willing to give me?"

He stopped abruptly as I looked up at him.

"Bloody hell, its a girl!" said the boy in the same accent.

"Yes, and a very hungry one too, so could you just lead me to wherever I can find food?" I waited for a response.

Then voices erupted from around me.

"How old is she?"

"Is she cute?"

"I call dibs!"

"No way, she's mine."

I looked around and faces peered at me curiously.

"I have no clue how old I am, nor if I'm cute, no one is calling dibs on me and I belong to nobody but me." I announce calmly. "Now, you keep postponing the giving of food to my mouth."

All the boys just stared at me, but I held eye contact with at least ten to show who's boss.

"Have you guys like never met a girl or something?" I ask, weary of the situation. "You know what never mind I'm too hungry to care.

I walk forward, out of the circle of dudes and I see a homely looking building a ways away, it has tables so I assume that food is what they put on those tables. I jog over to the building and spot a counter. I walk up to it.

"Could I get something to fill my stomach please?" I ask the emptiness.

I hear a bang and see a boy over working by a shelf in the room on the other side of the counter.

"Louisa I just gave you food, you can't seriously be requesting more already." said the boy.

"Um, I'm not sure who Louisa is, but you definitely did not just give me food." I say.

The boy turns around from his shelf to look at me. When he sees me, his eyes fill with shock and his mouth hangs open.

"Who are you?" he asks.

"I could ask the same of you, but since I'm a nice person I will tell you my name. Mare." I say, matter o factly.

"Are you the new greenie?" the boy asks.

"I don't know what a greenie is, but I am new here, and I believe I requested food." I say, now bored.

"Um, right sorry." he said, he takes a plate from one of the various tables strewn across the, what now seems to be, kitchen.

"Thank you very much." I say, taking the plate from the boy and moving away from the counter to a table.

I choose one close to the wall and sit, I look at my plate and see it is laden with a turkey sandwich, potato wedges, and diced tomatoes. Delicious. I start eating at once. After I get halfway through I look up to see the boy with the weird voice limping towards me.

"Hello." I say with a stuffed mouth, as he walks up to me.

"Um, hi." he says awkwardly and sits opposite from me. He eyes my bottle sword, which I had forgotten I still had because of the presence of food, warily.

"I'm not going to kill you, if that's what you're worrying about." I say, annoyed at his suspiciousness.

"What? Oh, sorry. It's just, the first time, also the last time, we got a girl, she tried to kill me." he says.

"Judging by the way the guy who gave me food, mistook me for another girl, I'm guessing that you don't have to worry about her killing anyone anymore?" I say airily.

"Well, you're very perceptive." he says, now smiling.

"I'm also guessing you hooked up with her." I say distantly, still eating.

"What? How did you? What?" he says, shocked.

"Like you said, perceptive." I tap my right temple and smile at the boy.

"Well, that doesn't matter. Right, back to business, do you have any questions?" he asks, still looking flustered.

I stifle a laugh and say, "Tons, but I'm guessing you have plenty, so I'll let you go first."

"Um, great. Well, first things first, what's your name?" he asks.

"Mare, at your service." I say, sarcastically stretching out my hand for him to shake.

"Well then Mare, nice to meet you, my name is Newt." he says smiling and shaking my outstretched hand.

I laugh and look around. The sky is already getting dim and I'm tired.

"Now, I would ask you my share of the question but I'm tired and I want to sleep, so the only question I ask you is: where can I hit the hay?" I say exhausted.

"Oh, well, since you're a girl I guess that you can share a room with the only other girl, Louisa." Newt says.

"Your girlfriend." I say pointedly.

"She's not my- well, I guess she is my girlfriend. Fine, yes, my girlfriend." Newt says, a smile tugging at his lips.

He stands, so do I, picking up my empty plate and bottle sword. I set my plate on the counter and follow Newt inside. He leads me up a set of stairs and into the first door in the right. I walk in to see a blonde girl sitting and brushing her hair.

She looks up at Newt, then me, and exclaims, "A girl!"

"Yes, yes, I am of the female gender. Now, I'm really sorry, but I'm super tired and he said I could sleep here. So if you have questions I'd love to answer them in the morning, my name is Mare, good night." I announce very quickly. I spot the bunk bead left of the girl and climb to the top, seeing that the girl's stuff is strewn all over the bottom. I lie down and pull the covers up to my shoulders.

I look at the two other people in the room, sitting there, probably shocked at my behavior, before I close my eyes, and drift away into the land of dreams.


	2. Chapter 2: The First Experience

**Chapter 2**

 _I run through the dim grey hall and turn left; I stop at a dead end, panting for breath._

 _"If you surrender now, your punishment will be less painful." I heard a voice croon over the intercom._

 _"I'll never surrender. You know what you did and you're not trying to help! You're just hurting people! My friends are dying because of you!" I shout to thin air._

 _"What if we told you we have your brother?" The voice spoke again, harsher this time._

 _"You can't possibly. I told him to run." I say, doubt lacing my voice._

 _"Did you really think he wouldn't come back for you? You're twins Skylar." the voice said, eating up my worries._

 _"No duh! But I can tell when he's here, or when he's in danger. You don't have my brother, if you did you'd be able to prove it!" I yelled at the hallway, tears in my eyes._

 _"Oh but we can and we will"_

 _A new voice spoke over the intercom, "Skylar run!"_

•••

I open my eyes and stare up at the ceiling above me. It was weird. My name isn't Skylar, I wouldn't ever be so nervous or scared, I'm a much slower runner than that. At this thought, I smiled. I am a slow runner. But then I tried to remember what the ceiling above my head belonged to; it is brown and consisted of wooden planks. Like the homely building. Then I remembered. Poo, the place that only has one other girl out of tens of guys. Just great. I sit up and groan, I'm really hungry and as I look through the tiny window, I see the sun hasn't risen yet. I turn over on to my stomach. Instead of climbing down the ladder to get to the floor, I pull myself over the wooden handlebars and gently lower myself onto the ground. When I reach the ground, I look at the figure in the bottom bunk. Louisa. She is really pretty and her tan skin complements her pale hair, as she sleeps I sneak out the creaky door quietly and walk down the stairs. As I open the door I immediately smell fresh air. I smile, it smells like roses. I walk over to the tables and see that the counter has curtains pulled over it, but I can smell the food so the boy must be making it. As I look opposite of the window, I study my surroundings, I'm in a huge square surrounded by monumental concrete walls, there is what looks to be a forest opposite this building and a garden to my right, as I look around I see two boys walking towards me. As they get closer, I realize I don't recognize either of them, I also realize that I sub-consciously brought my bottle sword, and I mentally pat myself on the back. I reach for my bottle sword and stand. Once the boys reach me I make out their features. One has black spiky hair and a tall lean figure; the other is built the same but has light brown hair. They walk over to counter, either not noticing me or not caring. The black haired one taps on the counter and the curtains slide open slightly. An arm reaches out and places two plates and two brown paper bags on the counter. I watch as the black haired boy takes them and moves over to a table with the light haired boy following him. Once they sit, I decide I could go try to talk to them. I walk up and see shock register on both faces.

"Don't tell me you didn't know about the second girl?" I say wearily.

"W-we, we did. It's just, we didn't expect you to be so pretty." The light haired boy stammers.

"What my ignorant friend here is trying to say is, we didn't expect you to be up so early." the dark haired boy shoots an irritated look at the other boy.

"Well I'm sorry to disappoint you, but-"

"We're not disappointed." The light haired boy cuts in.

"Would you shut it!" the black haired boy whisper yelled at the other boy.

"Fine, fine I'm done talking." the boy said smiling smugly at the black haired boy.

"Your name starts with M." I stated blandly, pointing at the black haired boy.

"How did you-" the black haired boy looked at me quizzically.

"People whose names begin with M tend to openly demonstrate aggressiveness." I say, cutting him off.

"Okay then. Well since you already know part of my name, I'll tell you the rest. I'm Minho, keeper of the runners. Those are the guys who-"

"I don't even want to know." I say, before he can finish another word.

"Okay... Well, why _are_ you up so early?" Minho asks.

"Nightmare." I say shortly.

"Right. Have you met Louisa?" he asks.

"Kind of, we now share a room, so..." I reply.

"Right..."

"Man, you guys are so awkward. Ask her name you idiot!" the light haired boy says, holding back a laugh.

"Right, sorry, and you're name is?" Minho asks, his face reddening.

I laugh. Both boys look at me shocked.

"I'm… So… Sorry… It's… Just… Haha…" I say between laughs.

"What's so funny?" Minho asks, puzzled.

"I acted awkward on purpose, I like to think of myself as a very friendly person actually. And the name's Mare." I say, finally pulling myself together.

"Right." Minho says, "Nice to meet you Mare."

He reaches out his hand and I shake it smiling.

He laughs, "You're very strange Mare."

"I get that a lot. At least, I think I do." I say, the smile slipping from my face.

"Hey it's alright, none of us remembered anything when we first got here." Minho says, attempting to console me.

"Uh guys, hate to interrupt and all, but the doors opened. We gotta go." the light haired boy says.

As they get up to leave, he says, "forgot to tell you, my name's Ben." and they run out into the open walls.

•••

Once the kitchen counter opened for business I got food, then I snuck back for seconds.

Now I'm walking back to my/Louisa's room, I want to get to know the girl, or at least as much as she remembers.

I walk into the door of the homely building, and up the stairs, I turn to the right and open the door. When I come in, Louisa is still sleeping. I slam the door behind me and she shoots up, looking around wildly for the source of the noise and her eyes fell upon little humble me.

"Yeah, I'm real sorry, but I had a feeling that it wouldn't cut it to wake you up gently, and I didn't want to hurt you, so that was my solution." I say quickly, not giving her the opportunity to be angry.

"Ok then..." Louisa looks at me quizzically.

"I know I already told you my name, but we really haven't been formally introduced. I'm Mare, pleasure to meet you, but I must warn you, I believe myself to be a little bit of a weirdo." I smile, and hold my hand out for her to shake.

"I'm Louisa, the pleasure is all mine, and don't worry, there are plenty of weirdoes around this place." She says, and takes my hand, shaking it.

We both draw back our hands quickly to cover our laughing mouths and pull ourselves together.

"So, I see you're quite the comedian." I say, taking a breath, I'm really glad she has a sense of humor, cause I tend to resort to comedy if I feel out of place.

"Yeah, I can have a good laugh. But, I was also wondering a little about you, Newt told me you didn't ask any questions. I was surprised, most newbies are just pouring with questions." Louisa looks at me like I'm covered in paint or something.

"I do have questions, I just hate to overload my brain with confusion, so I'm trying to slowly leak it out." I tell her.

"Okay... Well, I can answer most of your questions." She said, smiling.

"Okay good. First off, do you know why I can't remember anything?" I ask.

"Well, we were all sent here somehow, and we think that whoever sent us here, removed our memories." She answers.

"Oh, then where exactly is the here they sent us to?"

"Well, this is the glade, and the walls that surround it, those protect us from the maze and what lives in it. They close every afternoon and open in the morning, we have people who run in the maze trying to find a way out."

"Like Minho and Ben?" I ask.

"Yeah. How do you know them?"

"When I woke up I met them before they left."

"Oh. Well, do you have anymore questions?" Louisa asks.

"Not at the moment." I say.

"Okay good, cause I want to take a shower and pee, now that there's another girl, I can do that without having to take precautions." she says quickly.

I laugh, "At least they _have_ showers."

"True." she says, tapping her chin to show mock thinking.

I smile, "Well, I wanna take a shower too, I feel like I'm collecting all of the sweat of the guys here."

Now it's Louisa's turn to laugh.

We stood and left the room, walking down the stairs and out of the homely building.


	3. Chapter 3: The First Griever

Hello valued readers! I hope I have not caused controversy by using Ben's movie job, instead of his original builder's position. As I said before, I won't usually have chapters this fast; I don't plan on releasing the fourth chapter until Thursday. –Can'tHandleIt

As we walked, I observed my surroundings more. The trees I saw before, were very tightly knit together, it would be an amazing place to just be alone with my thoughts, think this whole weird thing through. I sigh quietly; it probably would not be the best idea to be left alone with my thoughts.

We reached the shower house. I followed Louisa inside and looked around here as well, there were five shower stalls and seven toilets, or should I say, buckets with pipes leading out of them, I rolled my eyes, a mixture of disgust and challenging in my mind.

"Ok, I assume you know how to operate a shower?" Louisa turned to face me, looking at me questioningly.

"Of course, I think of myself as a very tech savvy kinda gal." I smile and hold both thumbs up.

"Ok good, cause I'm gonna pee, so if you want to start a shower I can make sure nobody comes in." she says.

"Okey dokey." I smile again.

She walks towards the toilets as soon as I reply, obviously having a hard time holding it.

I walk to the biggest looking shower stall and step in. There are three shelves. The bottom one holds a towel, the second holds a bar of soap, the third, empty, I assume for clothes. I strip off my clothes and fold them onto the top shelf; I look down at the handles under the showerhead. I twist the right handle left and water pours out of the faucet. At first, it's really cold, but it gradually warms. I take the bar of soap off the shelf and scrub myself down, from my split ends, to my toenails. I then rinse myself off and attempt to untangle my hair, I don't make much a difference, besides the fact that I pulled out plenty of hair trying to unknot it. Once I'm content that I'm as clean as I'm going to get, I twist the right handle back down and stop the water. I wrap the towel around myself and just stand there for a minute. Then, I take off the towel and wrap my hair in it, a special twist that I don't remember learning. I slip in my clothes, putting on my shirt last, because I had to take off the towel. I bring the towel out of the stall with me, and hang it on a rack I hadn't noticed before. I see Louisa's figure standing outside the door protectively; well at least I know I can trust someone here.

I walk out and greet Louisa.

"Okay, now it's you turn to watch the area." she says.

"Great, just what I need, time for the questions to slowly fill my tiny brain." I say sarcastically.

"I'm sure you don't have a tiny brain. It seems to me that most people here have pretty big brains, so even if they did make a mistake sending my miniature mind up here, that doesn't mean you have a tiny brain." she says smiling.

She walks inside. I look up into the sky; it's still very early by the looks of it. Most people probably haven't even woken up yet, at least, I hope not. I happen to enjoy my solitude.

Instead of thinking, I try to count my fingers precisely 84 times. Louisa is faster than I expected, and I only make it to 52. She comes out, her vibrant blonde hair, now a wet dull light brown. As I look at her, I remember that I never found out what I looked like.

"Is there any mirrors around here?" I ask Louisa as we walk back towards the homely building.

"There is one, but its cracked," she says dismissively.

"Can you show me?" I ask, still wanting to know.

"Um, sure…" she says, slowly.

She keeps walking to the homely building, but as we reach it, she goes inside and walks to the end of the first hall, lifting a trapdoor that I never saw before. I get a feeling that it was never meant to be seen, as we walk down rough stone steps and finally stop at a grey door, that I can barely make out in the dim light. Louisa stuffs her hand into her pocket, and after a few seconds of searching, she pulls out a set of keys. She flips each one around until she spots the right one. She jams it into the keyhole and unlocks the door.

"You can't tell anyone about this place, or that I showed it to you. Cause then Newt would get mad, because he's not supposed to give me the keys, and Abby would get mad at him." Louisa whispers quickly.

I nod my head silently. She swings open the door and reaches her hand out and flails it around until she catches onto something. A light flickers on and I see that she pulled a chain leading up to a dusty light bulb. I scan the room, and see shelves with weapons strewn around on them, ranging from swords to bows. As my eyes sweep the room again, I see what we came for. A square frame lies on the floor, glass shards lying cracked inside. I look into the glass.

Staring back at me is a tall girl, with dark brown hair starting at her roots but fading down into a gold color, then finally to blonde. Her eyes were a bright brown, almost orange when they caught the light. She had light freckles dotted across her pail skin. She has dark circles under her eyes and she's very thin, her hair is a bit of a mess, and her arms and legs look dry and raw. She has pink full lips, and a thin button nose. She's wearing a dark green sweatshirt and light blue shorts, with black-laced boots.

I lift my hand, so does she, I realize that this is my reflection, and vainly think of myself as quite pretty. Why does that matter, I'm not trying to impress anyone, am I? Well, yeah probably, as there's fifty or so guys, who I think at least one of them could be all right. I am shaken out of my thoughts, as my eyes meet Louisa's reflection. I turn to face her.

"Thanks." I say seriously.

"No problem. I of all people, know how it feels to want to just take a glimpse of yourself." she says, emphatically. "This is the weapon room, we have the mirror in here because, the keepers wanted to make sure no one uses the shards as weapons."

I look again around the dark walls. Louisa takes a last look around as well, then heads for the door.

I follow her upstairs and out the door of the homely building. We grab breakfast, thankfully not missing it, and talk more about what it means to live in the glade, as they call it.

Louisa tells me that she's been assigned to give me the tour, she also tells me that this is because they've grudgingly allowed her to pause at her job, she's a runner, and she's only been given the day off to show me around. It's the whole she's a girl I'm a girl thing. We take a walk around the place. It doesn't take long, and we're done by lunch. After we finish eating, I go to one of the pairs of huge stone walls, apparently leading to the maze that keeps us here. I just sit on the ground, just staring ahead of me.

I close my eyes to take in breath of fresh air. When I open them, a large black and blue gooey spider towers over me. I think it seems a bit more like a scorpion as it raises a long stinger above its head and it slowly moves towards me. I stay where I sit, frozen in place, not knowing if running would give me away. The last thing I see is the stinger coming down sharply on the left of my stomach.

•••

(POV switched)

I finally met the new girl. She was as weird as Newt told me she'd be. This morning she just walked right up to Ben and me. Ben started blubbering about how pretty she was and all, it was a pathetic attempt to get both me and her embarrassed. It didn't work for either of us, but it did seem to increase the tension, until she completely sliced it in half, by suddenly laughing her head off. She really was strange though, didn't ask us why we were up so early or why we were going into the maze, didn't even ask our names, we just told her. I think she was as friendly as she told us she'd be, and I wouldn't mind getting to know the girl, when she's done with the shucking changing.

I came out of the west doors when I was finished running, she was lying there writhing and moaning bloody murder, I didn't even think about how she got stung, just picked her up and brought her to Clint. I was given first watch of our new hospital patient; because Newt and Alby only have a few people they can trust to watch an unconscious girl.

That's where I am now. Sitting in a rickety old chair next to her bed, bored out of my mind, I've eaten and I still got plenty of daylight hours, but if I leave no one's watching the girl. Her name is Mare, I mentally scold myself. I sigh, apparently, I now have to keep an eye on her, everyday after dinner until she wakes up, which could be for another couple months.

I look around the tiny room they gave her. It's pretty dull and only about twice the size of a closet. I look down at the girl. She's actually not bad looking; she's got dark hair that transcends into a light blonde. I think she has brown eyes, as I recall our morning conversation. I get a glimpse of the brown orbs again as she jets up looking around wide-eyed.


	4. Chapter 4: The First Girl Stung

**Authors Note: Thank you for being supportive! I really enjoy feedback and it only means improvement, so maybe a few more comments on this one.**

Then she starts to shiver jerkily, "it's so freezing." she chatters out through her clenched teeth.

For a moment I just sit there, dumbfounded. Then I regain my senses and pull another blanket off the table next to me.

"What the hell?" she shivers, "Why'd you just lay a ton of snow on me?!"

"I didn't." I say puzzled.

"Yeah- you did. You just practically poured it on me!" she gets out. "Get it off!"

"Yeah right sorry..." I jump up and pull off the blanket I just laid on her.

"Jeez, it's still freezing." she chatters. "What's the temperature?"

"68 degrees." I say, still shocked.

"Oh my grass stained pants, I'm burning!" she suddenly screamed.

"What? No, I said 68 degrees." I enunciate more clearly.

"Yeah I heard you! You said 268 degrees! How are you not on fire?! I'm literally flaming! Get some water you idiot!" she yells.

"No. Mare. I said sixty. Eight. Degrees. I'm not pouring water on you, you'll just get cold again." I say stubbornly.

"Fine then. Just put the snow back on, I'd rather be freezing on Mt. Everest, rather than burning in hell." she points to the blanket.

I pick it up and throw it back on her.

"Well, that hurt! Why'd you just toss a sheet of thick ice on me?!" she yells again.

"Mare, you're hallucinating, that wasn't ice, it was a blanket, you're not freezing or burning." I say.

"You're right! I'm melting!" she screams as she looks down at herself.

"Look, you're not the wicked witch, so you're not melting!" I nearly shout, annoyed, but also confused at who the hell the wicked witch is.

Then, suddenly stopping her outbursts, she looks me in the eyes, a look of loathing crossing her face.

"You! Take back what you said! You have no right to call Louisa fat, and no right to call me short!" she spits at me.

"What?" I say bewildered.

"Yeah, me and brother just might punch the living day lights out of you! So apologize!" she shouts.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry!" I hold my hands up in surrender.

"I swear to whatever God is left if you don't apologize, I'll eat you up and spit you out!" she yells again.

"I said I was sorry, dang it!" I yell back, now angry.

"You asked for it." she says, quietly this time.

Then she jumps from the bed and tackles me to the floor, trying wildly, to punch me.

"Hey! Get off!" I yell at her.

"Never insult me or my friends or my brother, ever again!" She gets out, between angry huffs, and very misjudged punches.

This time she lands a punch on my lip, and I feel it split and blood trickle down. She tries in vain to punch me once more, but suddenly, it's as if invisible hands are dragging her off me.

"Get off me, you saw what he did to Newt! He deserves it!" she shouts, struggling with thin air.

Then, the door of the room bursts open, and Louisa comes inside, staring at the ridiculous scene in front of her. Her eyes follow Mare, who is still being dragged off by invisible hands, then she sees me and my bleeding lip. She lets out an incredulous laugh and points at me, doubling over.

"You- Got- Beat- Up- By- The- Sick- Girl-" Louisa gets out between laughs.

"Haha very funny!" I say sarcastically. "But don't you think you should help her!"

Louisa edges towards Mare.

"Louisa come on! Help me out here! He deserves it! He called you fat!" Mare gestures in my direction angrily.

"You what?!" Louisa shouts at me.

"I swear I didn't! She's gone crazy!" I say.

"You better be telling the truth." Louisa mutters as she tries to near Mare again.

"Louisa please! Don't just let Thomas drag me away! The idiot called me short! He broke Newt's toe!" Mare shouts.

"You broke Newt's toe?!" Louisa looks at me, shock reflected in her eyes.

"No! I have no idea what the shuck she's talking about! She's gone a crazy shank!" I reply in my defense.

Louisa glared at me, before turning back to Mare. I can see her think before she finally decides to move. She tackles Mare and pins her down.

"Thomas get off! You can't just boss me around! You're only my brother!" Mare spits at Louisa.

"Mare, it's me Louisa. There's no Thomas here. Minho didn't do anything wrong, at least I hope." Louisa mutters the last part, and shoots a glare my way.

I shrug defensively and she turns back to Mare.

Mare looks her straight in the eye with annoyance in her every facial feature. Then, her eyes roll back in her head and she goes limp.

Louisa jumps up in surprise.

"Is she dead?!" I ask, moving quickly over to them.

"No, she's breathing, see?" Louisa points to Mare's heaving chest.

"Okay good, cause I just- I feel a little- wow that was intense." I say, the weight of it all, crashing down on me.

Louisa turns to face me. Then, she tries and fails to hide a laugh.

"Haha I got beat up by a girl, who was sick, and also the greenie, have I gotten all my insults now?" I say, sarcasm lacing my voice.

"Not all of them. You were obviously to scared to fight back." Louisa gestures to Mare, unconscious yet unharmed.

"Well, what was I supposed to do?! Hit her?! You don't hit girls, shuck face." I say folding my arms.

"You could have at least tried to restrain her, you know, before she woke up. Don't you remember Kent?" she pointed out, also crossing her arms disapprovingly.

Kent was a runner, who was stung on his way out of the maze. When he got the grief serum he completely settled down, and even though he looked like klunk, he was perfectly chill. No one suspected him to try anything, and we were all shocked when we found a knife in his hand and blood pouring from his chest.

"You're right, of course, all hail Queen Louisa." I roll my eyes at her.

She slaps my shoulder, "get out, she obviously hates you as much as I do. This doesn't mean you're completely relived of duty though, you still have to come back tomorrow."

I let out a fake giggle, "you said doody!" I point at her mockingly, smiling.

"Yeah, whatever. Just go." Louisa rolls her eyes at me.

•••

(POV Switch)

I remember. I remember that I had a brother, but I don't remember his name. I remember that Louisa was my friend, but I also know that isn't her real name. I remember my parents and that they're dead, but I don't remember how they died. I remember that I had a twin brother and a little brother, but I don't remember what happened to either. I remember, I remember Wicked, but I don't know what it is. I just know that it's terrible, and that no one believed me that it was. I remember the first time I lost a tooth, and the first time I broke bone. My thirteenth birthday was November 13 and I've always had a passion for sharpies. My favorite color constantly changed until it finally became green, and the world. The world is messed up.

I could have thought this much from the simple truth that the world outside of the glade is willing to torture teenagers by tormenting them with the maze. But, it's worse than I could have ever thought of. Ever.


	5. Chapter 5: The First Argument

**Authors note: I'm sorry for the late update, but I warned you guys that I wouldn't get everything out within a day.**

POV Minho:

I find myself sleeping in the crook of a tree at the front of the deadheads. I look up to see that the sun is already beginning to peer into the sky. I slowly push myself up onto my feet. I look around and see Ben, strolling on over to me.

"Hello, sleepy head, late start today?" Ben says smiling.

"What time is it?" I grumble, trying to sound as tired as possible.

"You have a watch." Ben says, gesturing to my wrist.

I look down at my hand and twist my watch so that I can see the face.

"Shuck it, the doors have opened." I say angrily.

"Not sure why you needed to look at your watch to see that but yes, the doors have opened." Ben says smugly.

"So why aren't you in the maze? Why aren't I in the maze?" I say baffled.

"Louisa took your section, so you could have the day off, I'm just late." Ben shrugs.

"Then go, you idiot!" I punch him in the shoulder and he starts to jog towards the doors.

"Ah, a day off, nothin' to do and no where to be, luxury." I sigh as I see Ben make his way through the doors.

"Oh good, you weren't planning on anything." I turn around and see Newt limping over to me.

"Why?" I ask, my eyes narrowed, suspicion lacing my tone.

"You have to watch the greenie." Newt says, coming up short, and looking at me like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Why would I have to watch Chuck?" I ask, still baffled, but then I remember, the new girl/greenie/Mare, and the indecency she put me through by getting stung. "Shuck it." I say, closing my eyes, as the image of her trying desperately to punch me comes to light.

"Do I have to?" I ask, opening my eyes.

"As sure as we are all trapped in a bloody maze." Newt looks at me cheerily.

"Do I have to now?" I ask, trying to postpone getting my eyeballs ripped out by the crazy girl.

"You have time to get breakfast, but then you got to go make sure she's okay." Newt says in his weird accent.

"She's fine, it's me that I'm worried bout." I glare in the direction of the homestead.

"From what Louisa told me, she had every right to punch you." Newt smiles again.

"How can you say that?!" I say, turning my glare to him.

"Louisa told me that the greenie yelled at you for calling her short, and calling Louisa fat, and breaking my toe." Newt turns his head to the side and examines my face joyfully.

"But I didn't!" I shout at him. I turn around and begin to walk to the homestead.

•••

POV Mare:

I woke up this morning, feeling as crappy as ever, and I tried to remember why. Oh yeah, that's right, the giant scorpion tried to kill me. As I think back, I also remember something else from yesterday. I almost laugh at loud when I remember that the boy called Minho was keeping an eye on me and I punched him. But, as I try to remember more, my mind feels blurry, and suddenly I remember a completely different memory, in this memory I feel justified for punching Minho, and someone is dragging me away from him, he's bleeding more now, and then whoever is carrying me stops, they move in front of me and I somehow recognize them, and I am very annoyed at him. My brother. He doesn't let me get past him to keep hitting Minho, but he doesn't try to help him either. As I study his features, I see similarities between the girl in the mirror and this boy, they both have initially dark hair, though the girl's hair is probably intentionally bleached, but they share other similarities all the same.

"Skylar you gotta stop, you'll get in trouble." the boy, my brother, says disapprovingly.

"He got what was coming to him, and anyway, you're supposed to call me Mare now." I spit at the boy.

"Listen, I know you hate this place, and the rules, and you hate having to change your name and all, but this is the only way we're going to survive, so just, just live with it." the boy says hesitantly.

"Sure, Thomas." I spit at him sarcastically.

"Come on, don't be like that, if we hate each other, then we hate everybody." he holds out his hand.

"Yeah, whatever, I don't hate you." I take his hand and rise to my feet.

Then, I open my eyes, I look around and see that the boy is not here anymore, in fact I'm in the homely building now.

I start, as the door swings open. Minho walks in and looks up. His face transforms into shock that I'm awake, and is that? A hint of fear.

"Hehe hi," I laugh nervously and wave my hand.

His face turns to an angry glare as he contemplates the gesture.

"You tried to kill me." he says.

"I think that's a little bit of an exaggeration, I didn't know what I was doing, and I only got one punch in anyway." I say dismissively.

He narrows his eyes and frowns, "So you remember?"

"Hehe yeah, I'm real sorry." I rub the back of my neck.

"Jeez you're like a ninja." he guffaws at me.

"Wh- what?" I stammer, I didn't do anything ninja like, but I also feel like I've heard the exact phrase.

"Well, you just took me down, it was real sad, I mean for me, because it took you like two seconds, and I didn't even get the option of fighting back." he says.

"Well, thanks, I guess..." I say, studying his face.

He just shrugs and pulls out a chair and drags it over to my bed from the doorway.

"So, why are you here?" I ask, still puzzled.

"Wow, you're welcome for being there to make sure no one comes in and slits your throat while you sleep." he glares at me again.

"It wasn't meant to be offensive." I say taken aback.

"Whatever." he says, still glaring.

"Hey I didn't ask to be here!" I say, now getting angry myself.

At first he looks surprised, but it quickly fades to anger equal to mine.

"Well it's not my fault your here! I didn't ask to be here either, so just shut up!" he nearly shouts at me.

"Get out." I say.

"What?" he says, surprised.

"I said get out." I point at the door.

"Fine." he moves toward the door.

"Wait," I say, he looks back at me, still angry, "I'm sorry."

He looks me in the eyes, and his anger fades.

"I'm sorry too, that was probably the most stupid argument I've ever been in." he says moving away from the door.

"You can say that again, but don't, because that would just be annoying." I say.

He laughs, "you're pretty funny."

"Well thank you, I pride myself on it." I make a small mock bow.

He smiles, but then his smile falters, "do you remember why you're here?"

"Yeah, the scorpion tried to eat me." I say waving my hand dismissively.

"Um, okay sure, do you remember anything after that?" he asks.

"Yeah, I punched you in the face." I say, confused at the question.

"I mean memories, you know, from before the maze." he looks at me hopefully.

"Yes." I don't elaborate.

"Do you wanna talk about it?" he asks.

I look up at him, he's got dark spiked hair and he looks, Asian, he's a runner, so it's obvious why he's tall and lean, but what is he doing here?

"Not particularly. You still haven't answered my question though. Why, not meaning to be offensive, are you here?" I ask, changing the subject.

"I'm here to make sure you stay safe." he says simply.

"I thought you were a runner, I thought you went out into the maze everyday to try and find a way out of this place." I say, realizing too late, that my voice sounded accusatory.

He looks at me, his eyes filling with anger before he calms, "Louisa is taking my place today."

"Oh, I'm sorry." I say looking down at my hands.

"For what? I get a day off." He looks at me puzzled.

"Well, for two things, for accusing you for not being in the maze, and for taking your day off." I say, still looking at my hands.

"Oh it's fine, I had nothing to do anyway." He says casually.

I look up at him. He's just sitting there, not a care in the world.

"You don't have to watch me." I say, still looking at him out of the corner of my eye.

"Yeah I do." he says.

"Why?" I ask.

"Because Newt made me."

"Oh." I say disappointment creeping into my voice.

Obviously he notices it, "I mean, because you're the best person to take care of ever!" he smiles.

I laugh,"real smooth."

"Yeah, real sly Romeo." The door opens and Newt's head pops into the room.

"Sup." Minho says.

"Just wanted to make sure you two weren't killing each other, but you seem to be getting along quite well." he snickers.

Minho moves over to my bed.

"Can I have that please?" he gestures to one of the pillows supporting me.

"Be my guest." I hand him the pillow.

He lifts it behind his shoulder, then propels it forward, hitting Newt in the face.

"Oi, quit!" Newt yells, as I take another pillow and throw it at him too.

"Never!" Minho yells as I hand him another pillow and he throws it at Newt.

This time Newt catches it.

"Oh crap." I mutter.

"You said it." Minho says, poised and ready to dodge it.

Newt smiles and throws the pillow at Minho, but he dodges it, leaving behind him, little humble me, and it slams into my face.

"Well now you asked for it." I say, I slowly rise from the bed and pick up a pillow off the ground. I reach down and pick another off the bed.

"Oh no! I'm sooooo scared." Minho waves his hands in mock surrender.

"You should be." I smile and narrow my eyes.

•••

I completely dominated Minho and Newt when pillow fighting, then Louisa got back around a few hours later. It's dinnertime and Louisa and me are waiting in line behind the counter. We would have been first to get food, but I was too occupied telling Louisa the events of my day.

We are finally second in line, and just about to get our food, when a tall boy with jet-black hair steps in front of us.

"Uh excuse me," I say to his back.

The boy turns around and looks at me like I've interrupted very important work, "what?" he asks in a deep guttural tone.

"What yourself." I say calmly.

"Yeah, what's your problem Jack?" Louisa adds.

"I don't know what you're talking about." the boy turns around again.

"Hey, we're not done talking to you, you've quite obviously cut us in line and we would like you to move to the back of the line please!" I say, not frustrated, but determined.

The boy, Jack, ignores me completely.

I look around to see Newt and Minho walk over to us, and I get an idea.

"Hey guys!" I wave at them to come over.

They walk over, "what's the happs greenie?" Minho says.

"Nothin', we were just waiting in line for food, we were about to get some but this idiot stepped in front of us." I say, and motion to Jack, making sure he can't hear me.

"Well, we can't have that, ladies first, eh." Newt says. "Oi, Jack, I think you're mistaken at where you should be in line."

"Yeah dude, you can't cut in line, if we lose organization than we lose order, and order's all we got here." Minho adds.

Jack doesn't even turn to look at them.

Minho reaches his hand over to Jack's shoulder, "hey dude-"

Just as Minho touches Jack, he spins around, knocking Minho's hand away.

"What the shuck man?" Minho pulls his hand back and looks up at him.

"Oddly enough I don't think that's a good question." I say.

As I look at Jack's face, I see that his eyes are vacant and his face is slackened, he stands there almost lazily, yet it's obvious that he remains vigilant.

"I beg to differ, I'd like to know what happened to him." Minho says after a few seconds of silence.

Suddenly, Jack raises his arm, in his hand he holds a kitchen knife.

"She's going to kill us all, even you guys!" Jack mutters distractedly.

Everyone turns their heads to me, even Louisa.

"Who is?" Minho says, eyes narrowing at Jack.

"Louisa! She's the reason we're stuck here! It's her fault, her and T and T!" he shouts hysterically.

"Did you just say T and T? You did not just bring explosives into this," I say confused.

"You can help save us Mare, she might listen to you, you've been against the whole thing from the beginning!" he cries.

"Yeah okay, what whole thing?" I ask.

"They're going to kill us all anyway, we might as well get it over with!" he shouts, then he lifts the knife and plunges it into his chest.


	6. Chapter 6: The First Strange Glader

**Authors Note: Hello readers! Sorry for the cliffhanger last chapter, but I kind of liked the whole situation. I must admit that I'm winging a little bit, but don't worry, I won't let this go astray! Thank you. -Can'tHandleIt**

I immediately move forward, reaching up to grab Jack before he falls back. I slowly lower him down on to floor, and move my fingers up to his neck. I use two fingers to feel for a pulse. For a small moment, I don't feel a heartbeat, but then I feel a _kathump_ , and I sigh with relief.

"Somebody give me something to stop the bleeding!" I turn and say to the nearby gladers, which includes, Newt, Minho, and Louisa.

Minho snaps out of it and moves quickly towards the counter. He reaches over the counter and takes a towel from the cook. He rushes over to me and hands me the towel.

I take it gratefully, and press it around the knife. Once I feel that there is no gap between the towel, Jack's chest, and the knife, I grip the knife, and ready, I quickly pull it from the mess.

"What did you do?!" Newt moves over to me.

"I removed the foreign object from the area in question, after surrounding the wound and stopping the blood flow." I stammer.

"How?" Minho comes over and takes the knife from my hand, bringing it to the counter.

"You saw." I shrug.

"I saw you perform rough surgery that only a doctor would know." Minho walks back towards me with another clean towel.

"I guess I was a doctor before I ended up in this place then." I say, offhandedly.

"Well then, the whole job choosing thing won't be too hard for us." Newt says.

"So you guys have so doctors here?" I ask.

"Yeah, we couldn't live without 'em." Minho continues.

"Then why am I the only one trying to keep this boy alive?!" I shout in Minho's face.

"Yep, didn't think of that, I'll go get Clint." He stands and jogs into the homely building.

The blood has soaked through the towel, so I lift the clean one Minho gave me and get ready to switch. I grip the bloody towel and hold the other right above. I count to three in my head and then I quickly slide the dirty towel away and press down the clean one. In the few seconds where the blood is free to flow wherever it wants, I feel it splatter into my face.

I hear loud footsteps from behind me and I turn to look over my shoulder. A short boy with dark hair is rushing over to me. Once he comes closer, I can see that there are little patches of lighter hair on his head. How long have they been here, if the stress is enough to give some of the boys gray hairs?

I look past the boy and see Minho standing with another boy I've never seen before. This boy has dark skin, and hair cropped closely to his head. He has a large build and by the look in his face, I can tell he's no one to mess with.

"What happened?!" the boy who walked towards me asks.

"Well, Louisa and me were just getting food when he stepped in front of us. Newt and Minho came over, and they were about to tell him off, when he turned around with a weird look on his face. It was like he wasn't paying attention to any of us; yet, it also looked like he was very aware of all of us. Then, he started shouting about how it was all someone's fault and we were all going to die. Then he said, since we're all going to die anyway, might as well get it over with, and he stabbed himself." I say, reluctantly leaving out the part where he accused Louisa.

She sends me a grateful glance over the boy's shoulder, and I know I made the right decision.

"Did you get any names?" the boy standing by Minho says.

"Well, yes. He said it was all my fault, me and something that he called T and T." Louisa steps up.

"Did he say anybody else's name? Anyone at all?" the boy asks.

"He told me that I could try to persuade Louisa to stop, he said that she would listen to me, and that I had been against it from the beginning." I pipe up.

"Against what?" the boy that is now attending to Jack, asks.

"He didn't have time to elaborate on that part, as he was too preoccupied trying to kill himself." Minho answers.

"I want to talk to Louisa, anyone of you can join me, but I suggest that you," the boy next to Minho motions towards me, "clean yourself up. I'm sure you've had enough excitement for one day."

With that, I sigh with relief, standing from my painful crouch position and walking towards the door of the homely building.

Before I go in, I here someone behind me whisper something, and a few seconds later, Minho joins me.

We walk up the stairs in silence. He leads me down the hallway past my room, and to the last door on the left. I push it open, and it reveals a small room, with a bed and a mirror and a small cabinet with a sink. I move towards it and twist on the water.

"Who was that guy?" I ask, not looking up from the sink.

"Well, you're going to have to be more specific, you see, there were three guys you had never met before, Jack, Alby, and Clint." Minho said.

"Oh you know, the one who told you to keep an eye on me." I twist the sink handle away from me and dry my hands on a towel next to the cabinet.

I turn and face him. His eyes are wide with shock, and it takes me a great deal not to grin. I just tap my temple and say, "Perceptive." Then I move around him and out the door.

I walk down the hallway, and as I do so, I realize that just this morning, I was sick in bed, and just yesterday, I was attacked by that... thing.

I'm jolted out of my thoughts as I hear footsteps behind me. Soft, light, I can tell this person does not want me to know that they are there. I keep my feet steady, giving no sign that I am fully aware of the figure moving towards me.

Suddenly, I feel an arm reach around my shoulders and pull me back, another reaches up and clamps my mouth shut. I think to myself, this person has it coming to them, when I hear a reassuring voice.

"It's okay, I'm not trying to hurt you. I'm going to let you go now, just don't scream."

I nod my head, and the hand slowly removes itself back to its owner. I whip around to face my attacker, and I'm surprised to see Ben, the light haired runner who was with Minho when I met him yesterday. I'm even more surprised when I realize that I only met Minho yesterday.

"What do you want?" I whisper, accusingly.

"I just wanted to show you something." He shrugs and motions the staircase.

I look down the stairs, then back to him, then down the stairs again, before finally shrugging. What could go wrong (with no weapons)?

His arm shoots out and grabs my hand in his pulling me down the staircase.

I struggle to not tumble down the stairs, as he practically drags me out of the building and into the grassy field in the center of the place, and towards the trees that seemed like the place you go to be alone with your thoughts.

I finally regain my footing and he continues to pull me along deeper into the woods, until we finally stop at a huge knotted tree, with thin but sturdy looking branches that look great for climbing.

"So, you going to tell me why you dragged me here now?" I look at Ben sideways and raise my eyebrow, questioningly.

"Oh yeah, yeah sure, I just thought you seemed like the kind of person who could enjoy climbing a good tree." He motions to the branches.

"Well, that's actually really thoughtful, thanks." I look back to the tree and rub my hands together.

I move forward to a fork in the bottom of the branches. I lift my foot to the middle of the two logs and pull myself up with a couple other, smaller, branches higher up.

I continue to pull myself up the tree until I reach around twenty feet off the ground, finding a particularly comfortable sitting branch.

"How you doing up there?" Ben shouts up.

"Fine thanks." I yell back.

"Right, I'm real sorry for this." He yells up.

"For what? This is fun." I look up to the darkening sky.

"It wasn't my idea, I swear. Minho made me do it!" Ben yelled back up.

"Dude! You weren't supposed to tell her that I made you do it!" I hear Minho's voice join in.

"What the hell are you talking about?!" I shout at Ben.

"I lured you out here so that Minho could talk to you." Ben says looking down at the grass below him.

"Come on! I thought you were okay! You're telling me this was a trap?" I yell at him.

"Maybe," He smiles up at me and then spins around and runs away.

"Hey! Come back here! I'm not done with you!" I yell after him.

I start to make my way down, when I see a dark figure start climbing up.

"You did not just trap me!" I yell at the figure.

"Just a little bit." I see Minho in the dim light; he's smiling his smug little smile.

"There are other ways." I say, mostly to myself.

I continue to move downwards but stop around seven feet off the ground. Then, I will myself to not look down, and I push myself off the branches and jump to the ground.

I fall with a grunt, luckily I remember to keep my feet straight until impact, then bend my knees to lessen the force. But that doesn't mean it didn't hurt.

I remember my current situation as I hear rustling behind me. I take a chance and look over my shoulder, just as Minho lowers himself to the ground. I turn and then take off ahead of me, subconsciously knowing that I'm going the wrong way.

"Oh come on! This is already hard as it is!" I hear Minho pant behind me.

"Then why don't you give up?!" I shout over my shoulder.

"Cause... Minho... never... gives up." He says between breaths.

"Yeah, right." I laugh.

I keep running, I can tell that the only way that he's not caught up to me, is because I am continuously dodging all the branches and things that come my way, while Minho is being hit by them, therefore he's being slowed down. If it weren't for the optimal setting, he would have caught me along time ago; as I said before I'm not a fast runner.

I realize with dread, that we have reached a clearing. Minho seizes the opportunity and speeds up, finally tackling me to the grass.

"Get off!" I shout in his face as we wrestle on the muddy ground.

"Only if you say please!" He yells back, pinning me to the ground.

"Never!" I yell, I jerk my legs out from under him and he rolls away from me, I quickly gather myself to my feet and move towards him. I stick my foot in his back, and press down, keeping him pinned.

"Second time this week. Really, I thought you'd be smarter about messing with me." I say triumphantly.

"I have said it before and I'll say it again, you're obviously a ninja sent here to make sure we follow the rules." He says, through breaths, struggling to get up.

"What rules?" I ask, narrowing my eyes.

"The unspoken ones..." He stops struggling to wave his hand dramatically.

"Right... So, are you gonna say that girls are better than boys, or am I gonna be here all night?" I ask.

"Guess you're gonna be here all night." He says, going back to struggling to rise.

"I don't think so." I bend down and pull one of his arms behind his back, pinning it in the painful position, which I know I've gone through many times.

"Argh, quit! That hurts like heck!" He shouts.

"Say it!" I say, pulling harder.

"Never!" He yells, stubbornly.

"Say it already!" I half laugh, at his expression, he's pouting like an angry two year old.

"Agh fine! Girls are better than boys!" He yells after a few seconds.

"Thank you." I smile and release him.


	7. Chapter 7: The First Pleasant Dream

**Author's Note: Hilo, I'm really excited about chapters that I plan on writing later on, so forgive me if the next few chapters are a little shorter.**

Minho finally convinced me to listen to him. He just told me a bunch of cheesy apologies, about keeping an eye on me. He told me who this Alby guy was, and he also described all of the jobs in detail, which was more helpful than I thought.

By the time he was finally finished answering all my questions and explaining everything, it was midnight. We walked to the homely building and he left for his room, I left for mine. But when he was asleep, I snuck into the kitchen and made myself a midnight meal, because I don't go for the plain midnight snacks.

I went into my room when I was finished, and tried to sleep. After I finally hit the hay, I had a dream...

 _I was walking, down a long grey hall, talking to someone, when I turn my head I see that the person is Minho._

 _"I hate this place!" I whisper yell, as I glare at the hallway._

 _"I know, you tell everybody who will listen. Besides it's practically the only thing you and 'Thomas' won't agree on." Minho closes his eyes and rubs them with his palms._

 _"That's not true, his favorite color is blue, and mine's green. Oh, and he likes peanut butter, I don't." I say absentmindedly._

 _Minho stops in his tracks, "You don't like peanut butter? I don't even know you anymore."_

 _I laugh at his disgusted expression._

 _"It's not that uncommon, and besides, you never knew me in the first place. Until two days ago, we shared a mutual hatred for each other." I snicker._

 _"Yeah well, new beginnings and all that shit. I wouldn't have to know you if there was another guy." Minho scoffs._

 _"Huh! Offense!" I hold a hand to my chest in mock hurt._

 _"Well it's true! You and Thomas are so alike that you have to have a group instead of just being partners. You're like the same person, and the whole point of partnering up, is to meet different people, to get a different perspective on things. Of course even with three people, you guys usually just go with the your suggestion, as whenever I don't agree with whatever you guys say, you just vote, majority rules!"_

 _He sighs, exasperated._

 _"Aw, is Minho unhappy, because we don't care about his opinions? Well maybe Minho should have been nicer to Skylar and Maysen, am I right or am I right?" I put on a fake pouty face._

 _"You're supposed to go by your new names." He folds his arms and frowns._

 _"How can you people like this place? I don't want to change my name to Mare just to copy off of Marie Curie, so what she's an important history figure, that should not affect my name! And I'm sure Maysen isn't too fond of being named Thomas Edison!" I throw my hands up._

 _"So? It's the rules, there only there to protect us. We're lucky we even made it this far." He shrugs._

 _"I beg to differ," I mutter, folding my arms._

 _"Come on, we've all lost people, we can't just give up because they're not here to support us anymore. When you're more than halfway across the bridge, if it gets unsteady, you don't turn back, you just go forward faster."_

•••

I wake up early in the morning again, surprisingly well rested. I remember my dream, was it really a dream or was it a memory? If it was a memory, than how come I'm the only one with these weird dream memory flashback things?

I think to myself that I should ask Louisa. Then, I remember that she was taken in for questioning, after Jack accused her. I scoff. It's ridiculous that anyone could think she would do such things. I've only known her for three days, and I know she couldn't be capable of forcing a ton of teenagers out of their lives and into this maze. I'm sure Newt's got her back though.

I roll out of bed again, and push open the door. As I walk down the hallway I think of visiting Jack to see if he made it through the night, but then I realize that I don't know what room he is in. But I might as well try to find it anyway. It's not like I have anything better to do.

I turn around and walk back to the room across from mine. I turn the knob and crack open the door. Another small room with one window and a bunk bed. I creak the door shut and move to the next one. I twist the handle to find that this room is the same as last. And devoid of life. I shut the door and move on. I hear movement and I think I found the right room. I crack the door and to my horror, I see Louisa and Newt sucking faces on the bed.

They look up at me, startled.

"I sure as hell hope this is your room." I get out breathlessly, staring at Newt.

"We can explain-" Newt starts.

"I'm sure you can, but that doesn't matter because I don't want to know." I turn and shut the door, and lean next to the wall. I let out a humorless laugh.

"Lock the door, amateurs!" I shout at the door. I hear something click near the handle, and move to the next door, choosing to forget that ever happened.

I open the next door to see Minho at the sink, splashing water into his face and washing his hands.

"Oops sorry. I really should have knocked this time, last time was a very vivid reminder of that." I mutter the last bit to myself.

"It's fine. But can I ask, what last time?" He turns to me, a puzzled look on his face.

"No you cannot, I don't need to be reminded." I give a dramatic shudder.

"You walked in on Louisa and Newt, didn't you?" He bursts into laughter.

"It's not funny! What if I walked in on someone going to the bathroom, or even getting dressed!?" I clench my fists.

"Jeez, I've haven't seen you get so flustered before. Besides, if you did walk in on someone getting dressed, they'd probably be okay with showing off their personal areas." He smirks.

"What's that suppose to mean?" I cross my arms, irritated.

"Your one of only two girls out of fifty or so guys, and you're the only available girl here, I'm pretty sure the guys are gonna want to show off." He laughs at my disgusted expression. "Just knock next time, you know?"

"Yeah, yeah, sure, I'll do that." I say, still disgusted.

"Do you need to bleach your eyeballs because of the mental image I just gave you?" He smirks again.

"I'll need to bleach my brain now!" I throw up my hands in frustration.

"What were you looking for anyway?" He asks.

"What?" I say, puzzled.

"You know, with the whole walk in incident." He gestures out the door.

"Oh, oh yeah, I was looking for Jack." I say remembering.

"Why?" Minho asks, obviously confused.

"I wanted to see if he is still okay." I shrug.

"He's not. Died a couple of hours after dinner." Minho crosses his arms and looks down at a very interesting patch of floor.

"Oh." I duck my head down.

"It's not your fault." He looks up again.

"I know." I close my eyes.

"Then what are you doing?" He stares at me.

 _One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten. Eleven. Twelve. Thirteen. Fourteen. Fifteen. Sixteen._ The only years that Jack of the gladers got to live in his short life.

"I'm counting." I open my eyes and look back up at him.

"What?" He asks, still puzzled.

"I close my eyes and count the years something got to live after something dies. I don't know why, it just feels normal." I shrug.

"So, you do that every time someone dies?" Minho leans against the wall, obviously perplexed at my strange habit.

"Every time I receive the knowledge that anyone or anything has died, I count the years that they lived, or a rough estimate of them." I sigh, "It's not like it makes a difference, it just honors their memory when nothing else can."

"Wow. That's... Considerate." Minho shrugs.

"Hardyharhar, laugh it up, _ooh looky at the sad girly! Crying over spilt milk!_ But, heed my words, Minho if the Runners! I will return and when I do, it'll probably be around lunch time!" I widen my eyes and wave my finger dramatically, as I exit the room.

"Okay, I'll see you then!" I hear him shout through the doors.

I laugh. I turn from the door to run smack into someone.

I look up, to see Newt's face smiling sheepishly down at me.

"Why are all you people so tall? I mean jeezus; even Louisa is like three inches taller than me. I'm not even a short person! I'm 5'8, yet all you people seem to be six feet tall!"

"It's the food. You're not the only short one around here, there's always Chuck."

"And how old's this Chuck guy?" I fold my arms and narrow my eyes suspiciously.

"He looks about twelve to me."

"So I'm the only short person around here?" I cock my head the side.

"No, there's Chuck-"

"Like I said, only short person, as Chuck's not a person, he's a kid, and he doesn't deserve to be here anymore than the rest of us."

"Fair point. But like _I_ said _,_ it's the food!"

"So, I don't suppose you've come to talk to me about a certain something that took place, a certain few minutes ago." I say, changing the subject.

"Pfft. No. I was just going to talk to Minho." He smiles and acts oblivious to the obvious lie.

"How do you know that Minho's even in there?" I smile, as he goes pale.

"I don't."

"You were listening to are conversation! Go n-ithe an cat thu!"

"What?" He looks at me perplexed.

"It means: May the cat eat you! It's an insult."

"In what language?"

"How should I know?"

"True, very true." He tapped his chin, deep in mock thoughts.

"So, you were eavesdropping, on me, the person who accidentally walked in on a situation, I wish never again to speak of. I feel as though, we are somehow even, but next time one of us gets into the other's business, it's my turn to do the snooping." I point my thumb at myself and grin.

"Deal, as long as we never discuss what happens when we are snooping." Newt holds his hand out for me to agree.

"What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, or wherever we really are." I take his hand, and shake it vigorously.


	8. Chapter 8: The First Meeting

Author's Note: Hello readers! I was happy to hear that people actually want me to continue, thank you for responding. I will continue to write and I will make deadlines for myself so that you guys can see when I'll post the next chapter. I'll post chapter... Uh... I think it's chapter nine, yeah, I'll post that next Wednesday. I'm trying to post quickly but Exams are next week and I am buried deep under in textbooks and review homework. Now back to the story...

After my bargaining with Newt I went down to have breakfast with Louisa and him. We completely avoided the topic of the accidental walk in, so overall, it was pretty okay.

However, we did cross the topic of Jack's untimely death.

"So what do you think happened to him?" I ask them both while staring at my empty plate.

"In all honesty? We have no idea what could've have possibly started up his crazy spasm. He'd never been like that before." Newt shrugged in defeat.

"So you're telling me that he just randomly decided to kill himself? And after accusing Louisa of stuffing us all in this hell?" I look up at him, a frown etched into my face.

"We don't have any possible smidgeon of an idea what could have caused this." Newt enunciates.

I let out an appreciative oh, after I realize that he can't say it around other gladers.

"But you do have one thing to look forward to." Newt continues.

"And what's that?" I sigh.

"You start workin' today." Newt smirks.

I groan and bang my head down on the table. If there's anything worse than not having anything to do, it's working.

•••

Hooray! Work! Work! Work! I'm only... Dying! Dying! Dying!

I mean seriously, who knew how backbreaking planting a few seeds would be?

Luckily, it's time for my lunch break. Arivaderchi muddy soil, kon'nichiwa fry oil!

I lumber over to the homely building and lazily take a tray as I move over to the short line. I'm earlier than usual. Mostly because I ditched when Zart was otherwise occupied.

As I quickly move up the line I smell the intoxicating aroma of chili. Mmm! My favorite!

I reach the counter and Frypan ladles a glob of chili into a bowl, which he then sets on my tray. Before I leave, he quickly puts a little more chili into my bowl and winks at me. I beam back at him and practically waltz over to a nearby table.

As I sit, I see Newt striding (limping) over, a grin stretched across his tan features. He takes a seat across from me.

"What are you smiling about?" I garble through a mouthful of chili.

"Ick, that is truly disgusting, but I'm only happy because you look thoroughly bored with your newfound occupation." Newt continues to beam.

"Well what's there to be excited about?! I mean, you move a few seeds over there, you water a few tiny plants, you pick a dozen apples! It only goes on and on and on..." I trail off dramatically.

"Fair enough." He laughs.

"What's making the world go round my fellow prisoners?" A voice sings.

I glance up and Minho striding toward us.

"Don't you ever work?" I mutter through chili.

"Occasionally. When I feel up to the challenge. But that's not a regular occurrence." Minho shrugs and plops down next to me.

"He got another day off." Newt answers me smirking.

"Why can't I have a day off? Working is boring." I complain as I slouch.

"This is your first day! And it's only half over!" Newt exclaims wearily.

"Ugh! Why is life so cruel?!" I throw my hands up in frustration.

"Because life got tired of watching all the little people have good days so it decided to mix it up and get a little more interesting by taking some of the little people and sticking them inside a giant maze." Minho smiles matter 'o' factly.

"Stupid life." I mutter.

"Indeed," Newt agrees.

We sit in an awkward silence for minutes that feel like eternities before I see a small pudgy boy hobble over to us sweating like a pig.

"What is it this time Chuck?" Newt sighs, also glancing at the boy.

"Nothing big, it's just-just..." The boy doubles over gasping for air.

Minho scoots forward and flimsily pats him while looking bored.

"Speak up Chucky." Newt finally says, after the boy pants for few more minutes.

"Yeah, yeah, right, well Alby needs to see ya." The boy, Chuck, finally gets out.

"Bloody, runs over here just to tell me Alby wants to talk..." Newt mutters as he stands and lumbers away.

"Who might you be little man?" I ask after Chuck looks like he's regained his breath.

"I-I'm Chuck." He turns bright pink and stammers.

"I'm Mare." I smile and hold my hand out.

He reaches up a pudgy arm and shakes my hand nervously.

"H-how do ya like the place so far?" Chuck went on, regaining a slight amount of confidence.

"Eh. It's decent and all, but it does have me wondering things. Like, how'd we get here? Why are we here? How do we get out? Ya know." I shrug simply.

"Well you'll have to step in line sister. If there's anything we wanna find out, it's those three questions." Chuck announced cheerily.

Authors Note: 'Poligize for the short chapter but I'm having a bit of a writer's block. I'll try to get the next one to ya by Sunday, and if I don't I'll make it extra long, but don't count on it.


	9. The Pause

I won't be able to post anything for a while, my phone's battery port isn't working, so I can't charge it, and it's losing battery power very fast. Sorry for the inconvenience, I will notify readers in the reviews when I plan to resume, but for the time being, I can't post.

-Can'tHandleIt


	10. Chapter 10

I'm sorry to say that i will discontinue this story. however i am on wattled under theprincessof the maze. bye


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